Inquests born of 1969 killing

The fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white North Las Vegas officer during the civil rights era led to the first-ever Clark County coroner's inquest into a death caused by police.

Racial tensions already were running high when shortly after midnight on Feb. 7, 1969, patrolman Richard Warrilow shot and killed Aaron Butler Jr., a 17-year-old burglary suspect. Warrilow was white, Butler black.

Anger flared in the black community, leading to calls for an inquest by the local chapter of the NAACP -- demands ignored by District Attorney George Franklin, who called the shooting justifiable homicide.

But Dr. Otto Ravenholt, the county's chief medical officer and coroner, was suspicious. He called an inquest.

"We really needed a public process in which anyone with claims of direct knowledge could testify under oath for the record," the 83-year-old Ravenholt said in a recent interview.

More than four decades and at least 192 inquests later, a process designed to shed light on use of deadly force under color of law remains just as controversial as it was in the beginning. The system will be tested again Friday, when the death of 21-year-old Trevon Cole goes before a Clark County coroner's inquest jury.

The small-time marijuana dealer was unarmed when he was shot by Las Vegas police officer Bryan Yant during a drug raid at his East Bonanza apartment on the night of June 11. His death, followed quickly by the high-profile shooting of Erik Scott, 38, by three Las Vegas police officers in July outside a busy Summerlin Costco, are two of the most controversial officer-involved deaths in recent years. Initially set for Sept. 3, Scott's inquest has been postponed indefinitely because of a complex investigation.

While the inquest process has evolved over 41 years, it always has been a bumpy ride. Critics note that inquest jurors rarely fault police even when evidence looks questionable.

Inquests are intended as a fact-finding process -- not a trial -- in which a majority of jurors decide whether the actions of police are justified, excusable or criminal. A killing is justified if an officer feels his or her life or the life of another is in danger. A death is excusable if the officer takes a life while "doing a lawful act, without any intention of killing, yet unfortunately kills another." Anything else is criminal homicide, but the determination is not binding. Prosecutors have discretion over filing of charges.

JURY VOTED FOR JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE

In 1969, Ravenholt ran the inquest, selected its three-member jury and lined up all of the witnesses. He had held prior inquests in accidental deaths, but this was the first time involving a police officer's actions. Questions about Warrilow's thought process when he pulled the trigger were center stage.

According to Review-Journal articles, Warrilow and another officer were investigating a burglary at the City Auto Wrecking Co., 2220 N. Commerce St. As they entered the dimly lit building, Warrilow saw a person on stairs leading to a loft. He ordered the suspect to stop and raise his hands. The young man put down a car radiator he was holding and reached for his belt.

Police said Warrilow fired because he thought Butler was going for a gun, but Butler had only a flashlight.

A nurse at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital later told Ravenholt that the mortally wounded teenager told her that he had his hands up before he was shot. But on the witness stand at the inquest she told a different story.

"Lo and behold, she had never told anyone she heard he was unarmed with his hands in the air,'' Ravenholt recalled.

The inquest jury voted 2-1 for justifiable homicide.

Afterward, Ravenholt sent a letter to all local police agencies that said he would call an inquest on all officer-involved deaths. Previously, agencies treated the deaths as internal investigations, with consultation from the district attorney. In theory, a police shooting could go to a grand jury, but those proceedings are secret -- and, Ravenholt said, unheard of prior to 1969.

CONTROVERSY IN 1976

The Clark County coroner's office has only an incomplete list of officer-involved death inquests, starting in 1976. Of 192 deaths on that list, 17 were found excusable. Only once has a coroner's jury deemed police actions criminally negligent: in 1976, when Metropolitan Police Department officers Jerry Weaver and Arthur Summers killed 23-year-old Darryl Taylor.

That finding was itself controversial.

Taylor died March 4, 1976, at the corner of Lake Mead Boulevard and Englestad Street, about a block from his home.

According to inquest testimony, Taylor stepped from a car he had hijacked at gunpoint and pointed his .32-caliber revolver at two police officers who had responded to reports of a man waving a gun around and who were parked 20 feet away. Several witnesses said Taylor, who had a history of mental problems, shot first, but the officers indicated one of them fired first.

Witnesses said Taylor fell, then got up and ran. Weaver and Summers, who had just arrived at the scene, chased Taylor north on Englestad in their cruiser. Newspaper reports said Taylor stopped, turned and fired four times at the officers. Each time they returned fire. Finally, Taylor fell to the ground, shot seven times.

Racial issues again played a role in the inquest process, with the state's lone black state senator, Joe Neal, saying the issue was not whether the actions of police were legally justified but whether black men were being shot while white suspects in similar cases were not.

The officers testified they fired in self-defense, but after four hours of deliberation, the three-person jury found that two of them had acted improperly though Taylor was clearly shooting at them,

"We find officers A. Summers and J. Weaver criminally negligent in the shooting and apprehension of Darryl J. Taylor by firing approximately 16 shots, jeopardizing the safety of life and property in the densely populated area of the 2000 block of Englestad Street," jury foreman Paul Ferguson said.

The finding was roundly criticized, and when the same inquest witnesses testified before a county grand jury, it refused to indict the officers.

1972 RULING OF EXCESSIVE FORCE

In the wake of the Costco shooting, media reports said the Taylor case was the only one ever to be adverse to the police.

But a coroner's jury in 1972 found police acted improperly yet stopped short of calling their actions criminal. In that case, Las Vegas police Detectives Joe Blasko and Bruce Sandholm were found negligent in the death of Jack Turner, a 48-year-old cabdriver they arrested in connection with an alleged bombing of a Whittlesea Blue Cab during a union driver's strike.

Turner died on Oct. 20, three days after his arrest, after complaining of head and abdominal pain. According to newspaper reports, he told his wife he was beaten by the officers. An autopsy showed 10 broken ribs and a bruise on his spleen, which ruptured.

Blasko and Sandholm testified that Turner threw himself on his own car during the arrest, causing his own injuries. The coroner's jury didn't buy it and ruled Turner's death a result of excessive force.

Sandholm and Blasko were charged with open murder, but a justice of the peace dismissed the charges and ruled there was no evidence the officers had harmed Turner. Blasko again made headlines in 1978, when he was accused of feeding police information to mobster Anthony Spilotro. Blasko was fired, then convicted of burglary and racketeering.

PROCESS DEFENDED, CRITICIZED

The inquest process has evolved over the years, becoming more legalistic and formal. Now, seven jurors selected from the same pool that feeds all civil and criminal trials hear testimony from witnesses called and questioned by the district attorney. A justice of the peace, not the coroner, presides.

The changes have done little to quell controversy. Stakeholders are equally adamant with praise or contempt.

During an editorial board meeting at the Review-Journal earlier this month, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said inquests are imperfect but do benefit the public.

"The inquest process is as transparent as you're going to find as far as what the public gets to see and hear," Gillespie said.

Police Protective Association union President Chris Collins said inquests are fair both to police and to the families of the dead. He said that the process is not meant to be adversarial. Officers, who are not compelled to participate, would not appear if it were, he said.

"These are officers who have not been charged with any wrong doing," he said.

But Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, used words such as "sham" and "whitewash" to describe inquests. "Yeah, it could be a whole lot worse," he said. "But it also could be a whole lot better."

Lichtenstein and Gary Peck, a former ACLU representative, have long asked the Clark County Commission and police unions to back changes such as having the state attorney general's office conduct the proceedings, which they say would be more balanced because the district attorney's office works closely with police and could be biased.

""We recognize that perception," District Attorney David Roger said. "Our prosecutors do their very best to maintain their objectivity and ask difficult questions during these proceedings."

Roger said his office has an agreement with the state attorney general's office, which would take over a case and determine whether criminal charges are necessary if a coroner's jury finds criminal negligence.

Lichtenstein and Peck want to open the process by allowing a lawyer or family representative to question police and witnesses, as do lawyers from the district attorney's office. Now, representatives may submit questions in writing, but the judge decides whether they will be addressed in the inquest.

Ross Goodman, lawyer for the Scott family, called the inquest an "ambush." He said police and the district attorney's office have months to prepare for the inquest while lawyers for the family get to see evidence the day of the inquest.

"If the officers are justified, they're justified," Goodman said. "But allow us to have a mutual sharing of the evidence. Allow it to be reciprocal."

Andre Lagomarsino, representing the Cole family, said he wasn't prepared for the roadblocks the system has set up against his client.

"You have to go through it to realize how bad it is.''

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.